The Leading Edge: Essential Leadership Skills for Building Strong Teams
By: Jesse Smith
A question I often get is, “Jesse, what do you see as the most important quality for a leader to possess?” I don’t know if I’ll ever come up with an answer for that. There are so many qualities that good leaders possess. Narrowing it down to one is close to impossible.
Over the last 3 1/2 years, I’ve had the opportunity to witness something that is the closest thing I could find to answer that question.
My business partner and I have been privileged to grow a hearing aid franchise from mid-five figures in annual sales to over mid-seven figures in annual sales in four short years.
Now, many businesses would LOVE that kind of growth.
Many people have asked me how we did it. We have many factors that have helped. We developed a sales process that is next to none in the industry. We have developed many processes that are very instrumental in that growth.
However, that is all worthless without buy-in from a team or individuals to carry it out.
Many businesses have wonderful tools to help them succeed. They have fine-tuned processes to ensure customer satisfaction, profit increases and business growth. Yet those same businesses are failing, day in and day out.
You have franchises with proven business models. Some are blowing it out of the water with success, and some are struggling or shutting down.
Why?
A strong team makes all the difference.
I’ve had the privilege to watch my business partner bring a team together and develop one of the strongest teams in our organization’s history.
How did he do it?
Three Leadership Skills Necessary for Building a Strong Team
- Value everyone’s perspective: Mike has been arguably one of the most successful and sought-after hearing instrument dispensers in the country. Yet, when he started putting this team together, he valued even the newest team member’s input as much as anyone else’s.
He has won awards for his accomplishments and gets job offers continuously because of his knowledge and expertise in the field. Yet he makes everyone on the team feel like they are just as important to the team as he is. He makes everyone feel that they have some part of their skill set that’s superior to his.He gives them the significance every person desires. He lays his ego aside, understanding and believing he can learn from anyone and everyone.
- Give the team creative rights to the process: Many leaders will talk about the struggle to get buy-in to the process. You might have created a great process. It might be a great idea. But until it becomes the team’s idea and not yours, you’ll have a difficult time getting buy-in.
During team meetings, Mike always gets feedback on a process he is thinking about implementing. He asks the team what they like and what they don’t like. He asks them for their input on how they think it could be better.Then, when it’s finished, everyone is excited about it. It becomes not “Mike’s process” but the entire team’s creation.
People believe 7% of what others say. They believe 50% of what they see. But they will believe 100% of what they say with their own mouth.
- Encourage them through failure: Many people are scared to fail, especially in front of their leader. That is, unless the leader creates a safe environment for failure to happen.
Mike provides encouragement for the team if someone fails. He helps them walk through what happened. He helps the individual see what they did well despite the failure. He helps them discover what they learned.He then helps them see how the failure brought them closer to where they are trying to go.
This then encourages the team to take more risks and fail faster and more often, which then creates a greater learning environment for everyone.
The key to creating a strong team is giving each member significance within the team- the feeling that the team wouldn’t be complete without them. Then, give them the chance to have a voice, all while giving them the freedom to fail or succeed.
If they succeed, congratulate them. If they fail, walk through it with them.
When a leader does these things, look out. They will have created a strong team environment. They will also create such extreme buy-in that they will follow you anywhere.
That’s really the validation of a leader, right?
In order to be a leader, people have to be willing to follow.
As John Maxwell says “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.”
Jesse Smith is an Executive Director with the John Maxwell Team. He is the co-founder of Inspired Motivated Leadership, LLC; a company that helps small and medium businesses create strong teams and grow their bottom line. Their passion is to help businesses and individuals reach their true potential.
For the last ten years, Jesse has been traveling the world speaking and training organizations how to properly motivate themselves and their team.
He currently resides in Wisconsin with his wife and children.
You can learn more about him at jessepaulsmith.com.